2016-03-30 By Robbin Laird During the first day of the RAAF Conference on Airpower, I had a chance to sit down and to talk with the Deputy Chief of Staff of the RAAF, Air Vice-Marshal McDonald. This is the third time I have had the opportunity to interview him, initially…
2016-03-28 By Richard Weitz The Russian media has recently given prominence to the role of Russian Special Operations Forces (SOF) in the military operation in Syria. The Russia media confirmed the death of a Russian Special forces officer conducting forward air control had called an artillery strike on his own…
2016-03-26 Eurofighter is expanding its weapons portfolio, in part to subsume key strike functions of the Tornado as it gets retired. A key missile in this effort is the addition of the Brimstone missile to the Eurofighter missile repertoire. Progress is being made in adding Brimstone to the strike package, and…
2016-03-25 The Aussies have added two new amphibious ships to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and sorting out the way ahead is at the vortex of land, sea and airpower, and the ADF is addressing it in this manner. It is a work in progress but the first new Canberra…
2016-03-22 By Robbin Laird During the previous week, at the Air Power Conference and then at the Williams Seminar on new approaches to air-land integration, a key focus has been upon how to shape a more integrated and effective force structure for 21st century missions and operations. From the perspective…
2016-03-19 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake Our visits to Pax River provided insight into the East Coast team, which is completely integrated with the West Coast team at Edwards Air Force Base; the legendary home of the Right Stuff air combat innovators. In his seminal work about US military…
2016-03-19 By Robbin Laird The Williams Foundation hosted a seminar on new approaches to air-land integration. The terms of reference for the conference were as follows: Air forces need to be capable of delivering air and space power effects to support conventional and special operations in the land domain. Air-Land…
2016-03-16 By Todd Miller The second Red Flag of 2016 featured an international coalition of NATO partners training against a dynamic and integrated “Red Adversary” Force. The exercise running from February 29 to March 11 included some 23 units representing the US Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and contingents from…
